The focus on the recently concluded Indian domestic cricket season was quite heartening. The reason behind this interest has been the mini-crisis that the senior team has been facing. To leave aside their performances in the limited-overs format, their record in the Test arena since the fateful tour of England in 2011 has been a forgettable one. A win against West Indies and New Zealand in the intervening period between the two humbling defeats to England was their only consolation.
The departure of two of their most prolific batsmen, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, means that the tag of the team with the best batting line-up is no more theirs to be proud of. The imminent departure of Sachin Tendulkar will mark the final act of the old guard making way for the new generation. The absence of the fab-four, combined with an experienced but unsettled batting line-up, gives a hint of vulnerability to this Indian team; which is the reason why everyone was glued to the domestic season to identify and search for the alternatives that will shape a future Team India.
The failure of the openers in Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag and with the eternal search for a dependable No. 6, a lot was riding upon the performances of the players-in-waiting in the recently concluded Ranji Trophy that was won by Mumbai. Rightly so, the selectors rewarded some of them with a place in the national squad. Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, got a call for the high-profile Border-Gavaskar trophy that begins February 22. Gautam Gambhir was dropped – and rightly so – given the command of the ‘A’ team to prove himself fit enough for the national team. The list of players included in the team gives you a whiff of the BCCI’s intention of building a team for the future. Not to take anything away from the selectors for choosing a team that best suits its needs at home, the one person that they could have recalled was Mumbai’s Wasim Jaffer. He had had a successful Ranji season in which he slammed three centuries that helped him amass 835 runs. Selecting Vijay over him who has had a poor season (as far as Ranji goes) seems a bit unfair.
No comments:
Post a Comment